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Philip Seymour Hoffman 'roots for' his roles

Philip Seymour Hoffman only plays characters you can "root for" in movies.

The star plays Lancaster Dodd in The Master, a character who was inspired by the founder of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard.

Philip explains how he started to warm to the role as he became more involved with making the movie.

“Four years ago, Paul Thomas Anderson had an idea for a film that was inspired by L. Ron Hubbard and the beginning of Scientology. I started reading drafts of The Master, but it became less and less about Scientology specifically and instead about the head of a movement," Philip revealed to W magazine. "The story became ‘What would happen if you were able to gather power and then started to lose it'’ Who is that guy' He may be a cult leader, but for me, there was a lot to root for in Lancaster Dodd. He believes in what he’s doing."

The legendary actor has racked up a string of awards, including a best actor Oscar for his 2005 movie Capote, in which he played the American author Truman Capote.

Philip had to do a lot of prep work getting to grips with who Capote really was before he could accept the part.

"If I can’t find what’s worthy about fighting for a person, I’m not going to play the part. It doesn’t mean that I like them. I don’t know that if I met Truman Capote I would have liked him," he finished. "We might have gone out to dinner and he might have just hated me.”